UK Mega Monday data reveals 81% rise in sales via mobile

Before the surge of U.S. data from Black Friday and Cyber Monday hits your screen, IBM have given an insight into U.K. sales figures and mobile shopping habits resulting from this week's 'Mega Monday' ecommerce activity.

IBM's latest findings come from Monday, 25 November, 2013, when millions of e-commerce transactions were tracked from more than 200 UK retail websites. The results reveal that online sales increased by 33.5% compared to the same day last year.

The stats surrounding mobile use speak for themselves - mobile traffic accounted for a whopping 42.4% of all online traffic, up 68% on the same day last year. Furthermore, mobile users weren't just using their device to research purchases. Almost a third (31%) of online sales were completed on a mobile device, an 81.5% rise on last year.

While smartphones accounted for almost a quarter (22.3%) of all online traffic, and tablets just 20%, tablets were the device of choice for making a purchase - 19.4% of online sales were made via tablet compared with just 12.4% via a smartphone.

According to IBM, Mega Mondays are specific to the UK and are similar to the U.S.'s Cyber Monday. IBM are reporting on two Mega Mondays this year - 25 November and 2 December.

Visa Europe believes Monday, 2 December, 2013 will be the UK's busiest Mega Monday. Visa predicts that that day will see their customers alone spend £450 million (US$735 million), the equivalent of £312,500 (US$510,000) every minute, or £5,208 (US$8,525) every second.

"UK consumers' love affair with online shopping will reach its peak on Mega Monday when we predict that we will process 7.7 million Visa transactions - a 16% rise on last year," said Jeremy Nicholds, director of commercial development at Visa Europe.